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Hey guys...I was just sitting here watching a little bit of tv (which I honestly don't do very often) and was thinking...

I wonder what God thinks about the UFC? 2 guys getting in a caged octagon and beating the crap out of each other...what do you think He would say about that?


Just curious

_________________
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus(Jn 13:34)

Wes
*All Scripture quoted is ESV unless otherwise noted*

If I had to honestly take a wild guess, He would say I see humanity hasn't changed at all...

May I suggest God has told us,

Genesis 6:5-6 5 But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended. Context (NET)

Watched that stuff a couple of times. Wow, it's really brutal!

Blessings,
Randy

I know that most of the men involved in the actual fighting see it as a sport. There are many Christian UFC fighters and after their victories give all praise to God and are a great witness. So in my opinion, if one views it as a competition and a sport, not viewing it as a fight and anger towards another individual, no problem.

_________________
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus(Jn 13:34)

Wes
*All Scripture quoted is ESV unless otherwise noted*

Fellas,
After fasting for the summer and much of the last five years, I just got TV service. I have been watching sports non-stop for three days to catch up. You HAVE to check out Bully Beatdown. This show is hilarious! Watch it from the beginning where our hero (a pro fighter) hunts down a bully (accompanied by the bully's victims) then suckers the tough-guy bully into getting in the ring with an MMA pro for a round. HA! dead bully.... Some episodes are a riot - one especially obnoxious bully started projectile vomiting after a humiliating loss.
I was literally ROTFL. I guess you had to be there.

Link removed by Moderator

As for real pro competition, I like some of it a lot: if they have a real governing body, weight classes, no extreme mismatches...
Boxing and Thai Kickboxing are best. The no holds barred cage fights
need new rules. The fight usually turns into a grappling/wrestling match after twenty seconds. Boring. I don't know what UFC is, sorry.

I assume that everyone here knows that so called "pro" wrestling
performances by steroid-strung-out giants in costumes are fake.
I am talking about real fighting sports, not this strange theater stuff.

S

_________________
Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,"
behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION" --
The apostle Paul, NASB

I have some friends who got sucked into that stuff for the last year or so. Needless to say they got distracted from the Lord, stopped coming to prayer meetings and focused on spending more time at the gym/talking about how to fight better. However not every believer is the same. I think that UFC is ammoral - neither good nor bad but just depends on what we do with it. Same goes for TV shows in general.

Personally I watched one episode of the newer seasons and never liked it at all. Too much cussing and too many rules Coming with a background of 4 years Jiu jitsu, 2 years karate and seeing that stuff got me bored quick.

Ephesians 4:31 does address what our attitudes should be like though and I don't see this represented in UFC.

Ephesians 4:31 31 You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk. Context (NET)

_________________
Studying MDiv. (Biblical Studies) at Tyndale Seminary
My Pastor's testimony "Street Kid to Preacher" - http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 1A10FF286C

Good thoughts Derek! I would enjoy watching it a lot more if there wasnt all the cussing and trash talking...

_________________
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus(Jn 13:34)

Wes
*All Scripture quoted is ESV unless otherwise noted*

Wouldn't the cussing and trash-talking alone argue against the a-moral point?


Blessings,
Randy

Then the same would apply to most (Secular?) TV Shows and Movies. I think there are a few redeeming qualities in UFC - Sportmanship, putting in your all (maybe not for the right motive), learning some basic self defense. Someone could benefit from watching the good parts, and skip the bad stuff. To me these put it into the grey area, similar to watching American Gladiator.

Your question is stretching me though

_________________
Studying MDiv. (Biblical Studies) at Tyndale Seminary
My Pastor's testimony "Street Kid to Preacher" - http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 1A10FF286C

You have said it.

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Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!

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Sports can sometimes be a tough area to discern the morality of, in_pursuit. But I do think there are some good guidelines and rules of thumb we can follow. (At least, these are the ones that I find most helpful and would use myself.)

I think when looking at whether a sport could potentially honor God and bring Him glory in engaging in it, we have to look at what the intent of the activity is and how it's carried out. With some sports like basketball, football, baseball, and hockey, there is some inevitable physical contact that can be quite rough at times (everything from getting knocked down/tackled to being slammed hard into a wall). Other sports, such as tennis, golf, swimming, and the like have minimal to no physical contact/roughness.

If the occurrence of the contact is:

a.) incidental to the sport and not the primary goal of it; and
b.) not unreasonably dangerous and harsh

then I would think that God would likely approve of the activity if we were to engage in it for fun and/or competition.

However, if the physical contact and "violence" are themselves meant as the primary goal of the sport, such as the case in boxing and MMA (where the goal is to physically hurt the opponent in order to win), then that would go against what it means to love thy neighbor and to honor and reflect God's own glory. It's impossible to imagine a person engaging in MMA combat with a heart set on glorifying God with his or her athletic abilities when what they are doing is pummeling another human into (often bloody) submission.

So, with MMA (such as the UFC), I think a clear and convincing case can be made that the sport would not be approved of by God. There may be some ambiguous and difficult cases to discern, but luckily I don't think this is one of them. I sometimes wonder about football, but usually end up thinking that it's probably within the most extreme range of "allowable" incidental contact that I think God would approve of. Football can be quite violent at times, but it's still contact that is incidental and with plenty of safety protocols in place.

I did watch it a few times about a year ago more in disbelief that humanity has stooped so low. I fail to recognise it as a sport or at least a moral sport. In the past campaigners for animal rights have fought against cock fights etc, it is a wonder they haven't stepped in here as they are behaving like animals

Scriptures have already been posted of how God would view it, God being a God of love, peace and mercy how could one even consider he would take any enjoyment in such?

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http://christianfindings.wordpress.com/
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Favourite verse John 7:37-39

I've not watched it but I take little interest in any kind of sports. My idea of a sport is golf despite my daughter's claim that golf is not a sport.

As for boxing-wrestling etc., I see the strength but does it have any purpose other than beating another person. Even if a person wins what has he really accomplished? It all seems rather futile to me but this is only my perspective.

I don't watch it, but it's a personal choice I made; I just don't care for all of the violence involved. I do watch other "violent" sports though such as football and hockey, but it just seems to me that the whole point of MMA (and boxing for that matter) is to either physically beat your opponent into submission or force him to submit to you; I believe that's where the problem lies with me. Also, it just makes me very uncomfortable seeing humans fighting in a cage.

Please don't lump wrestling in with WWF, etc... They may call it wrestling, but as my old coach used to say "that ain't wrestling, is wrasslin".

Real wrestling (as practiced at the high school, college, and Olympic levels) is a very different sport. And, surprisingly a safe sport. The worst injury I saw during my high school wrestling days was a broken finger.